Los Angeles police found the remains of two women in two different vehicles inside local tow yards this week, law enforcement sources have told The Times.
One woman’s remains were discovered about 12:20 p.m. Monday, when police responded to Hollywood Tow on Mansfield Avenue, according to Los Angeles Police Officer Charles Miller. Someone smelled a foul odor coming from the front trunk of a vehicle, and detectives were sent to investigate the possible presence of human remains.
The car, a Tesla with a Texas license plate, was towed from the tony Bird Streets neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills, according to police sources. The vehicle had been abandoned five days before. Earlier Tuesday, the gender of the woman couldn’t be determined by the L.A. County medical examiner’s office at the scene because of the level of decomposition, KTLA reported.
Another body — also that of a woman — was found Tuesday partially burned inside a Honda Civic that was logged as towed Aug. 25, according to two law enforcement sources not authorized to speak about the investigation. The Civic is connected to a missing person report and is considered a separate incident from the one in the Hollywood Hills. Detectives found the body at a different tow yard.
The Hollywood Hills case has been classified as a death investigation, Miller said.
The remains in that vehicle were described as a “head and torso” and were contained in a bag within the trunk, according to the law enforcement source.
The vehicle was registered to David Anthony Burke, a musician whose stage name is D4vd, according to one of the law enforcement sources who was not authorized to discuss the investigation. The singer performed Tuesday in Minneapolis on his world tour.
D4vd, pronounced “David,” first entered the public eye trough TikTok, where he has 3.6 million followers.
Times staff writers Summer Lin and Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.